The annual Consumer Electronics Show 2019 in Las Vegas attracted 175,212 individuals across the globe. It featured global technology giants and featured over 4,000 exhibitors. The massive scale of trade shows for different industries is a clear picture that it continues to be relevant in an era where both people and businesses heavily depend on digital marketing. If you’re organizing your own trade show, be sure to cover all relevant details with the help of a trade show checklist. This tool allows you to gather all matters pertinent to the activity, arrange them into a neat order, and track your plan’s progress all throughout its duration.

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What Is a Trade Show Checklist?

A trade show checklist is a comprehensive and detailed list of tasks that are important in preparing and executing the said event. It allows you to keep track of everything that needs to be done prior, during, and after the program. Unless you’re a superhuman who can commit to memory a year’s worth of activities and responsibilities, this is valuable in organizing the event and monitoring its development.

How to Develop a Trade Show Checklist

Just because everyone’s online doesn’t mean that face-to-face marketing interactions are obsolete. According to Forbes, trade shows are still an important promotional activity. It allows you to show how the product works in real-time so you can expect to receive customer feedback. Meanwhile, you can also check out your competitor’s performance. This information is valuable in improving your product’s quality.

Using a checklist in organizing a trade show alleviates a huge part of the burden. Here are some tips that can help you make yours:

1. Do Your Research

If you’re new to trade show organizing and is still learning the ropes of the industry, you definitely won’t be able to generate your own checklist. For you to do that, you must know the details of a basic trade show checklist and make it as your reference. This way, you’ll know what necessary inclusions you need to have on your document. If you have a connection with people who are already in the field, it’s even more efficient to ask for their advice and input on how you can put your checklist together.

2. Divide Tasks According to Timeline

To avoid overwhelming yourself with too many tasks all at the same time, divide them into different timeline periods. This is where preparing early becomes necessary because you can’t get the best results on short notice. As an example, you can first divide all your tasks as “Before”, “During,” and “After” on your event checklist. Allocate them under these labels so it’s easier to identify when you’ll be accomplishing them. After that, you can now assign deadlines to your responsibilities. For example, in trade shows, you should already contact your vendors and suppliers six months prior to your event to prevent complications. For your supplies, they should arrive a month before the actual date so you can determine what additional purchase to make without cramming.

3. Gather Relevant Contact Details

You won’t be able to single-handedly take care of the entire event plan without the help of staff and contractors. Get to know the key personnel that will take part in preparing and organizing the trade show with you. This is necessary because your checklist might have to change according to their suggestions. Be in constant contact with them to help keep you posted of relevant updates pertinent to the occasion.

4. Make It Flexible

Along the process, you’ll come up with a full checklist that will make it seem like you got everything covered, but more often than not, it will remain incomplete. There will be unforeseen changes, and added tasks will prompt you to adjust the project timeline. This is why your checklist should be flexible. As an example, there might be more organizations and businesses on your trade show exhibitor list than expected, so you might need to prepare for a bigger space. You’ll just have to negotiate with your venue for expansion and order more materials to cover for the changes, even if this means an apparent timeline delay. Your checklist should be able to cope with the issues and plan modifications.

FAQs

If you want your trade show to display only the best results, you should see to it that every tasks related to the activity is reasonably taken cared of within the set deadline. An efficient checklist will be able to help you achieve that. If you’re unsure of how to make a good trade show checklist, refer to the guideline or take the easy way and grab your copy from our checklist template display. Download now!